Who is Mahathir trying to fool – Jerusalem or UMNO?

TTF: Dr Mahathir Mohamed made an appearance at the “Solidarity to Save Jerusalem” rally mooted by Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak (see news item below). According to PPBM youth chief Syed Saddiq, the former premier made “a last minute decision” even he (Saddiq) was surprised to learn of.

Now, I have a couple of bones to pick with this Saddiq fellow:

First, if he was so ‘surprised’ to learn of his boss’ decision, how did he come to know that the PPBM de facto chief’s appearance was “to show support of the Palestinian cause, regardless of political differences?” Was he informed of this by Mahathir within the hour he came to know about it or is he just making it up?

Second, if indeed it is a “show support of the Palestinian cause, regardless of political differences,” why not involve the rank and file of PPBM? Why was the president of the party not there, and why were members of PPBM not rallied en masse to deliver the so called support Mahathir ‘intended’ to show?

Seriously, isn’t the whole idea of holding a rally to assemble as big a crowd as possible to reflect the extent of support there is for a cause? What good would it be to have one person from your party voicing support when you could easily get 10,000 or 100,000 to chant it aloud?

Get the point?

Mahathir was employing a two pronged strategy. By turning up, he delivered the impression that PPBM was ‘principled enough’ to put politics aside for the sake of Islam. Then, by getting Saddiq to announce the “last minute decision” bullsxxt, he delivered the message that the party did not have enough time to rally a proper crowd.

Now, do you know why it’s bullsxxt?

1. If PPBM is indeed ‘principled enough’ to put politics aside for the sake of solidarity and Islam, why wait until now to make it public? Wasn’t the rally announced by Najib more than a week ago?

2. Is Saddiq saying that something as crucial as rallying support for the sake of Islam and solidarity was never discussed by PPBM that entire week?

3. Incidentally, why did Mahathir need that long to decide if he was‘principled enough’ to put politics aside for the sake of solidarity and Islam?

4. And why is Saddiq the one making important announcements? Why is he doing what the party president is supposed to do? Is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sick? Or is he busy having an affair with Nika Gee?

5. It’s the year 2017 – we have cellphones, WhatsApp, Facebook Chat and what have you. In the one hour that Saddiq came to know of Mahathir’s decision, did he not take the initiative to contact as many party members as possible or assemble even a handful of youth leaders? Is he still on typewriters and smoke signals?

6. Or was he afraid that nobody would turn up?

7. Mahathir insists that Najib is morally perverse and unislamic. Tell me, how can you support a pro-Islam rally organised by a “morally perverse and unislamic” ‘hypocrite’? Does that not make you a hypocrite?

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is set to make an appearance at 2pm.

The Barisan Nasional-organised rally is a solidarity rally against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

On Thursday in New York, Malaysia joined 127 other countries to vote in favour of a United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Nine voted against the resolution while 35 abstained.

This came despite President Trump threatening to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour of the resolution.

“Malaysia joins the international community in expressing our deep concern and rejects the decision by the United States to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” said Malaysia’s permanent representative to the UN, Datuk Seri Mohd Shahrul Ikram Yaakob.

“It is also an infringement of the Palestinian people’s rights and their right to self determination,” he said, advocating a peaceful two-state solution and adding that Malaysia is concerned that this dire situation will only feed into the agenda of extremists.

He was speaking at the 37th plenary meeting of the 10th emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, which was entitled “Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.